I have invented a unique disposable absorbent apron for use with an infant high chair or the like. Food catching attachments for use with chairs and especially infant high chairs have been suggested for many years but they have met with little success due largely to the expense, awkwardness and unhygienic nature of such devices as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 939,841, 2,585,434 and 3,298,736.
Using technology developed for the manufacture of disposable diapers, my absorbent high chair apron can be made so inexpensively that the apron can be readily disposed of after use, thus eliminating the three major defects of existing high chair food catching arrangements, namely, they were expensive, they were awkward to use and store, and they had to be cleaned after each use, which was both time-consuming and unhygienic.
My disposable high chair apron is a thin flexible two ply square measuring five feet or slightly more on each side and less than 1/4 inch thick. The apron comprises a liquid impervious lower sheet and an upper layer of liquid absorbent non-woven fibrous material firmly joined to the lower sheet throughout their interface.
The liquid impervious lower sheet is preferably a thin flexible film of polyethylene. The upper layer is made of cellulosic or similar fibers of varying length bonded together into a highly absorbent layer between 1/16th and 1/8th of an inch thick. The impervious sheet and the absorbent layer are joined together by spaced beads or lines of adhesive or alternatively by the polyethylene film being extruded directly onto the layer of fibrous material.
When the apron is at least five feet square and centered beneath a high chair, it will receive and retain all of the foods and liquids, even a cupful of milk, dropped or spilled by an infant in the chair. Both dry and wet foods will be held by the absorbent layer and prevented from soiling the floor or carpet by the lower sheet of polyethylene. After the chair has been removed, the apron is simply wadded up and disposed of without further cleaning.